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Aomori Museum of Art

Aomori Museum of Art

The chalk-white walls of the Aomori Museum of Art stand out against a backdrop of striking green. The museum’s iconic centerpiece is the lovable Aomori Dog, a magnificent concrete statue standing 8.5 meters tall, created by Yoshitomo Nara. An artist from Aomori Prefecture’s Hirosaki City, Nara’s works have been featured at galleries including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

The museum opened in 2006 with the goal of promoting the art of Aomori to the world. The museum’s architectural design is a masterpiece in its own right, inspired by excavations of the prehistoric Sannai-Maruyama archeological site nearby.

Bright neon signs adorning the exterior walls greet museum visitors, welcoming guests to peruse halls lined with the works of artistic luminaries such as Marc Chagall, Rembrandt and Henri Matisse, as well as local Japanese artists. The exhibition space is uncluttered and sophisticated—an atmosphere ideal to discovering the thought-provoking pictograms, sculptures and drawings unique to the Aomori Museum of Art.